Danish Ali once again loses Maya's 'confidence' for not toeing party line

New Delhi: BSP chief Mayawati on Monday once again removed Amroha MP Kunwar Danish Ali as the floor leader of the party in Lok Sabha. For the first time, the party has announced Ambedkar Nagar MP Ritesh Pandey as the new leader in LS. Ali was first named the leader of Lok Sabha in June last year and then he was removed in August. In November, he was once again made the leader of the party in LS.

“In order to maintain a social balance, since both the leaders in Lok Sabha and UP BSP president are from the same community, some changes have been made,” Mayawati wrote on Twitter. Along with Pandey, Bijnor MP Malook Nagar has been named the deputy leader of the party in Lok Sabha.

Former MP Munquad Ali is the BSP state president and the party’s logic behind removing Ali is that it doesn’t want two Muslim leaders holding two party posts. BSP wants to ensure the representation of other communities too. However, Mayawati made Pandey the leader in LS and now BSP leaders in both the houses are Brahmins. Satish Chandra Misra is the BSP leader in Rajya Sabha. Sources in BSP told ET that all is not well within the party.

Danish Ali, who had joined BSP after quitting JDS . In fact, he wanted BSP to attend the opposition meeting called by Congress on Monday. Sources tell ET that BSP is planning to celebrate Mayawati’s 64th birthday on January 15 in a big way. Ali was of the opinion that the party should avoid any big celebration in wake of the ongoing protest against CAA and NRC across the state. But the party leadership was not convinced with his idea. Ali has gone to London to avoid Mayawati’s birthday celebration.